homas Hardy's poem "Convergence of the
Twain" is an alternative perspective on the loss of the
"Titanic" in April, 1912. The poem's major ideas
concern the vessel, its state, and symbolic significance
two years after the collision, and a speculation on how
the iceberg came to converge with the ship. Hardy is
very interested in affiliating the growth and fate of the
iceberg and ship through the deification of nature and
time. The first five stanzas of the poem concern the
submerged ship itself, while the last six discuss its fate
while afloat.

In the first five stanzas, Hardy's descriptions of
the Titanic are consistently juxtaposed against
the ship's present environment to emphasize the waste of
money, technology, and craftsmanship. The furnaces of
the ship, which contained "salamandrine fires" (5), now
have "Cold currents thrid" (6) through them. Where
there was once heat and life driving the engines of the
ship, there is now coldness and death. A further
juxtaposition within this second stanza is the use of the
word "pyre" (4), as it connotes funerals and death, while
the use of "salamandrine" insinuates a certain tenacity
for life (as salamanders were said to live through fires)
that could be associated with the Unsinkable Ship
everyone believed the Titanic to be before
accident.

Hardy further emphasizes the waste of the ship's
magnificence by describing how useless the "opulent mirrors"
are to uncomprehending sea-worms that are "grotesque,
slimed, dumb, indifferent" (9). The jewels on board the ship,
now at the ocean's floor, become "lightless, all their sparkles
bleared and black and blind" (12). The poet's use of multiple
adjectives and alliteration intensifies the somber nature of
these descriptions. The items that Hardy has chosen in his
poem to embody the loss of the ship (the cold furnaces,
bleared mirrors, and lightless jewels, rather than the loss of
life) are indicative of his attitude towards the ship and what it
stood for.

The Titanic was not simply a ship built to
traverse the ocean; it was a symbol of the wealth, power, and
industrialization of Britain during this time. The items which
appear in Hardy's poem are representative of the power,
wealth and vanity of the British nation. Hardy's discussion of
these items, rather than the more glaring issues of death and
human suffering normally associated with the loss of the ship,
would seem to indicate his disdain for the pride and
importance that his contemporaries placed upon scientific and
technological progress.

Hardy's discussion of the Titanic shifts in stanza
six to address the cause of the disaster. His use of enjambment
between the sixth and seventh stanzas seems to be a technique
employed to represent not only the coming together of the
iceberg and ship in the poem, but also their literal collision.
Hardy's use of deification for both nature and time in the last
six stanzas contribute to the ominous and fated quality of the
Titanic disaster. Hardy suggests that the Titanic
converging with the iceberg was not a coincidence, but rather
an event planned by an "Immanent Will" (18) and "The Spinner
of the Years" (31); inferring the ship had been destined for
destruction since its inception. The eighth stanza, perhaps the
most ominous of the poem, outlines how the ship and iceberg
grew to their completion concurrently, "as the smart ship grew /
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too" (22, 24).
Hardy uses words such as "mate" (19), "intimate welding" (27),
and "consummation" (33) to emphasize the apparent
predestination that these two behemoths seemed to have, and to
imply a wedding or sexual union of those mighty opposites.

Although he does not indicate implicitly that he believes
in the powers he names, Hardy weaves these deifications into
the poem to create a desired effect. The powers are not
portrayed as benevolent or merciful as the Christian God would
be, but rather they are the cause of this disaster. It would seem
that Hardy is telling his audience that humanity, no matter how
progressive we may become, will always be at the whim of
nature, which has no feeling or care. We are not able to rise
above or control a monolith such as the sea regardless of how
far our progress has taken us. Knowing the Titanic
disaster then, according to Hardy, should be a constant and
humbling reminder of humanity's fallibility.